Dimensions of Hands-on Science

BIOLOGY teachers have been bombarded with information regarding the need for hands-on science. Articles directed to biology teachers have been written on the subject (Leonard 1988). A blue ribbon panel authored a recent book on reform in biology and included a large section on the role laboratory instruction should play in biology classrooms (Fulfilling the Promise: Biology Education in the Nation's Schools, 1990). Recently, a new twist has been added, and the topic is called Hands-on/Minds-on science. Part of a recent issue of the Kappan was devoted to this very issue (Gough 1990). Padilla (1980) stated that many texts and programs use the term hands-on quite freely in order to sell their programs without regard to its real meaning. Like many terms in educational practice, these terms are not often used with a standard definition that has one meaning for all practitioners. What then do these terms mean? Are they sufficiently comprehensive and meaningful for the science teacher to find useful? In the process of answering these questions, we propose a new organization that is more comprehensive and useful than previous descriptions. If effective lab instruction is a goal, then clarity of these terms is necessary. In general, hands-on science is defined as any science lab activity that allows the student to handle, manipulate or observe a scientific process. Hofstein and Lunetta (1982) defined hands-on science laboratory activities as "contrived learning experiences in which students interact with materials to observe phenomena" (pp. 201-202). Hands-on science lab activities may be differentiated from other common methods of instruction, such as lecture and demonstration, by the criterion that students interact with materials. According to Hofstein and Lunetta, lab activities do not include demonstrations, museum visits or diffused field trips. A minds-on science activity includes the use of higher order thinking, such as problem solving, to the hands-on activity. Recent calls have been made to reform hands-on laboratory instruction in secondary biology. A distinguished panel of biology educators iterated the fact that current modes of biology laboratory instructional strategies have failed to meet the goals of laboratory instruction (Fulfilling the Promise: Biology Education in the Nation's Schools, 1990). This panel recommended that hands-on lab activities should be capable of producing "conceptual changes necessary for intellectual development and understanding" (p. 37). Higher level cognitive skill development was also stressed by the panel. Weiss (1987) reported that the use of hands-on lab activities by secondary teachers has dropped from 59 percent in 1977 to 39 percent in 1985-86. Recent researchers who reviewed popular high school biology textbooks revealed that the written lab activities of these texts are not capable of meeting the laboratory goals of problem solving and higher level inquiry (Lumpe & Scharmann, in press). It is evident that a clearer picture of the biology laboratory is needed so that reforms may be effectively employed.